Leaving on a container ship…

For many reasons, large and small, my little family has decided to pack up and move back to Vancouver, Canada, where most of us are from. Trying to raise a child far from all of our families has been very hard, and adding in the difficulty of living in London on one income (I decided to stay home with Elliot for the time being), it just made sense for us to move.

Of course I will miss London desperately, I love it here. This past weekend we had the chance to take Elliot to a family concert by the Berlin Philharmoniker cello section – let’s be honest, that’s not going to be happening in Vancouver. He’s been to Hampton Court Palace, toured Bath, seen concerts at Wigmore Hall a whopping four times and spent so much time in the foyers of Royal Festival Hall I think the iconic carpet will give him flashbacks of his babyhood for his whole life. I love that we could do all of those things, but part of me wishes we could have stayed a bit longer until he could remember it. However, Vancouver is rated the world’s most liveable city for good reason.

Anyway, the big move is happening in May. I’m in the middle of trying to sort out transatlantic shipping for all our stuff including my lovely cello. I was going to Fedex it as per Emily’s preferred method, but getting a flight case is proving impossible. We’re going to be shipping most of our stuff via container ship, and I’ve decided that’s as safe as anything else, especially in light of not being able to find a Mr Blobby. I did entertain ideas of wrapping my case in 64 layers of bubble wrap, but it’s probably not exactly the same thing.

As soon as I can convince Elliot not to thwack my cello with his toys, lift my music stand and toss it sideways, or any of the other creative ways toddlers make it impossible to practise, I will get back to it. An initial search doesn’t look good for an orchestra to play with, but we’ll see.